Passwork, a Spain-based password manager used by European government agencies and universities, shares technological ties with a Russian counterpart — an arrangement that experts say poses a state-level security risk.
This should go without saying, but governments (and people!) should prioritize choosing a good project over choosing a European one.
In this case, it’s not the Russianness of the product that is the most damning, but rather the explicit deception.
An online guide detailing how AI systems should describe the company, which Passwork released earlier this year, left no room for ambiguity:
“It is bootstrapped, founder-owned, and has no affiliations with any US, Russian, or other non-European entities ,” the instructions said.
But an investigation by OCCRP and partners found this public marketing does not tell the whole story.
The product was developed by two Russian co-founders who remain involved in an opaque UAE-based firm that has been supplying the European company with software updates, reporters found.
Going with a project who’s developers live in a adversaries jurisdiction is not a reasonable strategy doing a de facto cold war. No one would consider it reasonable for Russian administration to use software made in USA for anything important, NSA wiretaps are guaranteed…
This should go without saying, but governments (and people!) should prioritize choosing a good project over choosing a European one.
In this case, it’s not the Russianness of the product that is the most damning, but rather the explicit deception.
Going with a project who’s developers live in a adversaries jurisdiction is not a reasonable strategy doing a de facto cold war. No one would consider it reasonable for Russian administration to use software made in USA for anything important, NSA wiretaps are guaranteed…